Yes, that’s right. Qataris use five times the amount of carbon than the average Briton, at 44 metric tonnes per person per year. This is largely because of gas flaring, that produces a lot of CO2. Also energy intensive air conditioning and desalination plants for water. Because water and electricity is free, there is little incentive to cut usage.

What is the carbon footprint of all these delegates?

The Project Developer Forum, a group campaigning on behalf of green energy developers, estimate the conference will generate at least 25,000 tonnes of carbon. This is the carbon generated by 10,000 people flying into Qatar from around the world and staying in hotels for 15 nights. The total is more than the small island state of Niue in the South Pacific uses in a year.

The UN encourages all countries to offset their emissions by CERs (Certified Emissions Reductions) such as contributing to renewable energy schemes or reforestation in a developing country.

The UK is sending out about 40 people to the conference and has promised to offset emissions.

What is the carbon footprint of the conference itself?

The emissions from the conference itself have not been calculated yet, but according to the hosts will be kept to a minimum and also offset through CERs. Previous UN conferences generated about 15,000 tonnes of CO2. The Qatar National Convention Centre is certified by the US Green Building Council’s as a Leader in in Energy and Environment Design (LEED). It used sustainably logged wood and some 3,500 meters of solar panels can provide up to 12.5 per cent of the building’s energy needs. Skylights built into exhibition halls bring in natural light. More than 400 buses will be laid on to reduce emissions from transport, including some run on biofuels. The website claims that materials and items used at the conference will be “disposed of responsibly, through reuse, donation to charitable organisations, recycling, and composting or energy recovery”. Paper use will be minimised through the ‘PaperSmart’ system that means documents are only printed out on request.

Who will be there?

Christiana Figueres is the President of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that guides the process each year.

His Excellency Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, former OPEC President & Petroleum Executive of the Year Award in 2008, is the President of the conference itself.

Leaders from other Middle Eastern countries and some developing nations will turn up but it will mostly be environment ministers.

The Kyoto Protocol, drawn up in 1997, committed all rich countries to cut carbon emissions.

It has not been the most successful global treaty. The US never ratified and Canada failed to keep its promise on cutting emissions.

Nevertheless it is the only global treaty on climate change that we have and emissions targets to be replaced when it runs out at the end of 2012.

It is also a totemic point for developing countries who refuse to take part in negotiations unless richer countries continue to cut emissions.

The EU, Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Lichenstein, Croatia, Ukraine and Iceland have all said they will sign up to a second commitment period.

This should be enough to ensure the developing countries remain at the table.

The second commitment period runs from 2013 to 2020. Targets for emissions have yet to be decided but it is likely the EU, including the UK, will sign up to a target of 20 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020.

But ‘KP2’ or ‘CP2’, as the second commitment period is known, covers less than 25 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions.

The world is also a very different place than 1997. Former developing countries are now among the world's biggest emitters.

So what about the rest of the world?

At the last UN meeting in Durban the world agreed to work towards a new global deal for 2015 that will commit all countries to cutting emissions, rather than just rich nations, from 2020.

This is important for the US that refuses to sign up to any treaty, unless China, the world’s biggest emitter, also cuts emissions.

However there is a lot of detail that needs to be thrashed out before 2015.

In Doha negotiators will argue how the new global deal will be set up. The most important issue is pushing for ambitious climate change targets. 'Side issues' will include agreeing how to measure carbon, share green technology and halt deforestation.

There will also be pressure on countries not commiting to targets as part of the Kyoto Protocol to cut emissions between now and 2020.

Sticking points?

One of the concerns is over "hot air". Several EU countries were given huge allowances of carbon permits that they want to carry over into a new commitment period. But the scale of the surplus, some 13 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, could render future promises to cut carbon effectively meaningless.

Europe is also divided over whether to increase its target from 20 to 30 per cent by 2020.

If Europe cannot sort itself out and pulls out of KP then negotiations will collapse.

Europe may also pull out of KP2 if it feels that other countries are not moving fast enough towards the global treaty. Small island states and developing countries always threaten to walk out if enough action is not taken.

Progress towards the global treaty could reach stalemate if the two big players, the US and China disagree. China wants the US to make deeper cuts in emissions, while the US wants China to be more transparent about the action it is taking.

How much will this all cost?

The world has already spent $30bn as part of ‘Fast Start Finance’ to help poorer countries adapt to climate change.

However Oxfam point out that much of this money is either a loan, stuck in banks without actually helping anyone or taken out of aid money elsewhere.

The world has committed to build up money for climate change adaptation and the move to greener energy to $100bn per year by 2020.

A Green Climate Fund has been set up based in South Korea but is empty at the moment. In Doha countries will discuss how to manage and raise the money and how to distribute it

How much has it cost me?

The UK Government has pledged £2.9bn to climate finance. So far £1.5bn has been spent on fast start finance, leaving a further $1.4bn to spend by 2015.

Oh, and the cost of our 40-strong delegation, that the Government will release in due course.

However at home in the UK, our own goals are in question after a target to decarbonise electricity by 2030 failed to make it into the Energy Bill.

Is it worth it?

Domestic targets to cut emissions are greater than any targets on the table during these negotiations. The United States – through regulation and using shale gas – is likely to hit its target for reducing emissions by 17 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020. China is committed to cutting its carbon intensity, the measure of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP, by 45 per cent.

The question is whether any countries would be making these efforts without the UN pressure in the background?

Why should I care?

Scientists say global warming will cause more extreme weather events and in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and with the UK currently suffering floods, this is more prescient than ever.

Despite efforts over the last decade to try and reduce emissions, concentrations of warming gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are up 20 per cent since 2000.

Levels CO2 were at more than 390 parts per million (ppm) in 2011, compared to 280ppm before the start of the era of the Industrial Revolution in 1750, an increase of around 40 per cent.

However, the same report said there is still a chance the world can limit climate change to 2C if more is done to switch to renewable energy, green transport and stop deforestation.

Most agree, the UN talks remain the best chance of achieving this.

What about the World Cup?

Qatar was recently awarded the 2022 football World Cup, largely on the grounds it will be sustainable. The plan is to hold matches in the height of summer in air conditioned stadiums powered by solar panels. Many are cynical.

The climate change conference will be an opportunity to prove the Qataris are serious when it comes to climate change.